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Dec. 20, 2017

Being Genuine Is a Key Facet of This Designer’s Colorful Style

In partnership with Delta® Faucet, the Cut asked a few of today’s leading interior-design experts how they design with the future in mind. Tapping four designers who embody the brand’s values of innovative, visionary, genuine, and sophisticated, we discovered how each incorporates forward-thinking solutions, style, and functionality into their unique design approach. Below, one of the four.

You might think that interior designer, TV host, and lifestyle expert Sabrina Soto’s colorfully styled life – shared generously via Instagram and Facebook Live – comes across as too charmed to be authentic. In reality, it’s being genuine, open, and personal that has endeared her to a national audience and career’s worth of clients who relate to her candor and bright energy.

For Soto, treating the design and renovation process as a soul-searching exercise is a strategy tailored to what good interior design means now. Rather than being formed from a preconceived scheme, she says, homes should reflect their inhabitants’ lifestyles, passions, and day-to-day needs more than ever. “You should use your personality and infuse it into a space,” she says. “People should walk into your home and get a glimpse of what your lifestyle is like.”

People should walk into your home and get a glimpse of what your lifestyle is like.

What else is key to her design approach? “A space should be fun and accessible,” she says. “And I love making pretty rooms, but they have to function for a family, too.” In her own L.A. home, that meant turning her garage into a beautiful finished studio that serves her design needs. Her house has to work as an entertaining space, too, she says: “My family is really loud, and we’re at each other’s houses every weekend and it’s a lot of us.” The first-generation Cuban-American adds, “I want to make sure that a space is inviting and comfortable.”

Perhaps Soto’s biggest signature, however, is bold pops of color. “Color actually makes me really happy, and there’s a way to infuse that pop and make it still sophisticated.” True to herself as ever, she says, “If I lived in a beige box, I think I’d be pretty bored.” Watch above to learn how she’s using technology to make real connections with more people than ever, and tune into what’s truest to them.